Unrecognized for centuries: distribution and sexual caste descriptions of the West European species of the group (Hymenoptera, Formicidae).

There are only two species from the group in the western Mediterranean: Santschi, 1925, from south-western Europe, and (Latreille, 1798), also occurring in central and eastern Europe. Historically, the two species have been widely misunderstood: was long considered a Sardinian endemic subspecies of , while its continental populations were misidentified as s. str.